Tiger Woods caught doom-scrolling
Last fall, I played golf with dad friends at Silver Lake Golf Club on Staten Island.
I got talking to one of them, Blake.
He works as a focus puller on movie and TV production crews.
I didn’t know what that meant, so he explained that he focuses a camera’s lens by adjusting or “pulling” the focus distance.
(The cameraman holds the camera, and is less important than I thought.)
He got me thinking about how survey questions also bring things into focus, not by guiding our vision but by directing our thinking.
I know “directing our thinking” sounds a little Big Brother-y, but the part that should scare you is how hard it is.
Think about it.
All Blake has to do is select an object from a camera’s visual field... he told me that “A trained monkey can do my job.” (I doubt it’s that easy.)
With survey questions, the number of things you could "direct a shopper’s thinking towards" is essentially infinite.
Finding the correct “focal point” can feel as hopeless as:
Late-night scrolling
Finding the true catalog in an infinite library
My short game
However: there's something you can do to narrow the search and pinpoint the right question.
I got into surveys about 10 years ago.
Since then, I’ve been working on it non-stop.
And the expertise I’ve slowly cultivated is something you can access.
Right now.
Survey platforms don’t like to talk about expertise.
So they talk about convenience instead.
Specifically how getting “valuable insights” is “fast” and “easy.”
It sounds nice -- like a golf brand promising longer drives and straighter putts -- but everybody knows that new gear isn’t going to lower your handicap.
When it comes to survey design, you don’t have the time or motivation to put in the required practice hours.
But as I said, you don’t have to.
By clicking on the link and booking a $45 Survey Roast, you will tap into a decade of experience.
https://www.sammcnerney.com/45-dollar-survey-roast
I’ll use it to help you guide your shoppers' thinking.
So you ask the right questions.
And tell your story.
Cheers,
Sam